The present invention is directed to lubricants in general, and more specifically to a lubricant for disposition on a railroad track to provide greater efficiency in the railroad traffic thereover.
In the prior art, various attempts have been made to lubricate railroad tracks to reduce wear, flow and corrugation occurrence, in an attempt to reduce rail fatigue and failure. Also, attempts have been made to increase the efficiency of rail traffic over such rails.
Prior art compositions of railroad track lubricants have included various oil compositions and grease, which have had the disadvantage of hydroplaning during braking of the train. Other prior art compositions have had a tendency to pick up metal slivers in the composition matrix, which has caused premature shoe removal and wheel tread grooving. Although some efficiency increase has been effectuated in utilizing grease for a railroad track lubricant, and especially on curves, these energy savings have been offset by other disadvantages including lack of traction on sloped surfaces and a tendency of the grease product to become removed from the rail surface caused by rail wheel loading, and squeeze out.
In view of the disadvantages and deficiencies of prior art railroad track lubricants, it is a material object of the improved railroad track lubricant of the present invention to materially alleviate those difficulties and disadvantages. The accomplishment of these and other objects will be better understood in view of the following brief description of the invention, detailed description of preferred embodiments, including examples, and appended claims.